Must Register! Private Property-The Pond, Atlantis and Mine Area MORE INFO >>>

Climbing at The Pond, Atlantis and Mine Area are private property, and now requires that you register in order to gain legal access. This is an easy process. You can do this at: queencreekclimbing.com. This is a one-time and free process so once you are registered you are good to go.

I did this route about a year ago, and the area just below the first roof could definitely use a few more ascents. The route as a whole is nice, and the second roof was pretty clean with fun moves. It felt fairly solid for 5.11b/c at Queen Creek to me.

Mike you are way more generous than me. I sessed this route out on a recent trip so today I decided to give it a whirl.

To put it simply, the route is choss. The upper roof has some redeeming qualities but very few. Getting to the upper roof is dangerous for the belayer, as it's nearly impossible to avoid sluffing the decomposing rock off and dropping it to the base.

In the event you are able to link the moves together and still hang on to solid holds (few and far between) you'll find that the bolt located directly below the first roof gives such horrendous rope drag when trying to move through the upper roof that your wildest dream is to just jump and end it all.

It is of my opinion that this route at best should be considered a project. It is criminal that it was put up and left to the public in it's current state. It requires a SERIOUS cleaning and/or chopping. Personally I don't care which.

Sorry Scott, but it's awful. I've already seen better work of yours so don't take my post as hate mail. I encourage you to please return & clean it up for the sake of your own name. Once done I'd be willing to pack a 4' long runner for the bolt below the roof and give it another go. Until then, I'll stick to your very nice .8 chimney to the left. Which in contrast to "double exposure" is a nice addition to the area.

Susan, No offense taken, although calling it "criminal" is a bit much but what the hell this is the WWW. The rock quality under the first roof is poor, though I don't think dangerous as it's mostly pebble sized stuff that comes off. It's hard to believe but I did a lot of cleaning on the route. The bolts on the route are pretty frequent and solid so protection isn't an issue. It does need more ascents. The second roof is much more solid. As to the rope drag you are right, a longer runner before and after the first roof will alleviate much of that. I would have liked to put the bolt under the roof further right but the rock quality there didn't pass the hammer test. S

Thanks for the history. I looked at that first roof to see if there was a realistic way to avoid the drag. Maybe you'd be able to avoid it if you had put the bolt right at the lip of the roof vs. below it but even then with the way that bulge ledges out would there would still be a lot of friction. Best case scenario is a super-super long runner and even that is no guarantee.

Notice I didn't say the route was unsafe for the leader? Only the belayer, those flakes are bigger than you remember. The bolts however are solid and nicely spaced.

I'm still not sold, too grungy and the top bulge may be missing a key hold (large scared area on the right where perhaps you would side pull?) You might be the only one that could tell that.

Oh yeah, on a side note. When I last did it, the upper section was swarming with wasps which made my "shopping" for good holds even more exciting.

I hopped on this route a couple days ago and got spanked! The first roof was fun but couldn't get myself up the second. I found a sequence that would most likely go, thin crimps and a side pull, but I think its way harder than 11b. Does anybody know if indeed a hold did brake off?

A route that should never have been. Standard Queen Creek ego-based built-in runout pro (especially on the crux where a nice ledge could easily munch your ankles). Even in its finest moments it's at best blase' climbing. The rock quality is "scheise" and with aggressive cleaning (as in sledges, chisels, and crowbars) could at least been made somewhat safe. One can't depend on subsequent ascent parties to do the cleaning of a route that should have been done beforehand- this is an important responsibility of the first ascentionists.

I thought the route was really cool; a fun climb with the two open books and the roof to finish was fun. Rope drag was a serious issue, but otherwise well worth doing; just hang a long runner under the first roof and another below the second roof. The rock quality felt good; I didn't worry too much sending rock down.

I tried to climb it last year and got stuck right at the roof. I was told by a member of another climbing party that the key hold in the crux has come off, making the climb harder than the original rating. There is, however, a very good chance that the climb is in the same state as it was during the FA and I just can't do it yet :-)

I thought this route was fun, dirty and chossy. I didn't bring long runners and thus suffered with the rope drag. For the upper roof, the natural line seemed to be the arete between the bolts of this route and the 5.8 next door. I ended up using a jug rail to traverse out right to clip the final bolt and then mantle over to try and stay sort of true to the original line, but this felt easier than what others have been suggesting. I did not attempt to go straight up from the ledge since I did not want to break an ankle falling onto said ledge. My partner broke off a foot-hold in the dihedral under the first roof (on the right side).